Read today’s Kaiser Health News
In other news:
Judge Asks DOJ To Define DEI In Health Grant Case: A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday ordered U.S. Department of Justice lawyers to provide the Trump administration's definitions of diversity, equity and inclusion, saying he needs to know so he can consider whether that is a valid basis for pausing federal health research…
Why a Planned Reorganization of the FDA Creates Major Challenges: An insightful piece by two former FDA heads.
About health insurance/insurers
Toward Integrating Care for Dually Eligible Beneficiaries: FYI. A thoughtful analysis and suggestions for those receiving healthcare through Medicare and Medicaid.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
The week in health system M&A: 2 deals close, another called off: FYI
About pharma
Appeals court rejects AstraZeneca's challenge to Medicare drug price talks: AstraZeneca's bid to derail Medicare's power to negotiate lower drug prices on certain prescription drugs under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has failed in a US appeals court.In a ruling Thursday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the US government, affirming a lower court's 2024 dismissal of AstraZeneca's lawsuit. That court found AstraZeneca hasn't shown it was directly harmed by the negotiation programme and failed to prove the law violated its constitutional rights.
About the public’s health
Rising food prices in US getting in way of healthy eating, survey of Americans finds: American adults say sticker shock at the grocery store is making it harder for them to have a healthy diet, according to a nationally representative survey of adults by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that conducts data-driven research.
Ninety percent of adults in the United States say the price of healthy food has risen over the past few years, and over two-thirds (69%) say higher food prices are making it difficult to eat a healthy diet.
Effectiveness and Safety of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccine for US Adults Aged 60 Years or Older: Findings In this case-control study of 787 822 patients tested for RSV, vaccine effectiveness was approximately 75% among adults aged 60 years or older against RSV-associated acute respiratory infection, urgent care or emergency visits, or hospitalization; effectiveness was less but still substantial among immunocompromised patients. An estimated excess of 11.2 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome followed administration per 1 000 000 doses of RSV vaccine.
Meaning These findings suggest that RSV vaccination of older patients is effective even for most immunocompromised patients, but diagnoses of Guillain-Barré syndrome are increased after vaccination.
About healthcare IT
FaceAge, a deep learning system to estimate biological age from face photographs to improve prognostication: a model development and validation study : Our results suggest that a deep learning model can estimate biological age from face photographs and thereby enhance survival prediction in patients with cancer. Further research, including validation in larger cohorts, is needed to verify these findings in patients with cancer and to establish whether the findings extend to patients with other diseases. Subject to further testing and validation, approaches such as FaceAge could be used to translate a patient’s visual appearance into objective, quantitative, and clinically valuable measures.
About healthcare personnel
TIME Reveals the 2025 TIME100 Health List of the World’s Most Influential People in Health: FYI